


moonflower

by waveydnp



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:47:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27184042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waveydnp/pseuds/waveydnp
Summary: She just gave me that crooked grin she gives me when she’s being bad and said, “C’mon Poppins, live a little.”
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 10
Kudos: 126





	moonflower

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dizzy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/gifts).



Jamie always keeps flowers on the kitchen table, in a glass vase that I bought her for our second anniversary. Before that she kept them in a mug, a new bouquet whenever the old one started to wilt. Right now it’s a handful of daisies she plucked from our neighbour’s lawn. I pushed her shoulder when she did it and squealed that we’d get in trouble. She just gave me that crooked grin she gives me when she’s being bad and said, “C’mon Poppins, live a little.” We ran down the street to our house, cackling all the way. 

They don’t look quite so sunny at two in the morning. I didn’t turn the kitchen light on, so I’m just sitting here in the dark. The clock on the stove glows its little blue numbers at me, reminding me that I should be asleep. Reminding me that this is where I find myself every night at this time. 

I was careful not to wake Jamie. She’s got work in the morning, and her eyes have been ringed with purple for the past week. Sometimes I wish she’d take her role as wife just a little less seriously. I’m already drowning in guilt. 

I pull my leg up and rest my chin on my knee. I look at Jamie’s daisies. I chew the nail on my thumb.

Then the light flicks on and she’s there, leaning against the doorway in underwear and an oversized t-shirt. 

“Thought I told you to wake me up when you can’t sleep.”

Her accent hasn’t dulled at all, even after all these years. She still sounds like she left the Midlands only yesterday. 

“You did.”

“And yet, here you sit, alone in the dark.”

I try to smile. I do. The part of me that’s still me always wants to smile for her. But the part that’s someone else grows a little stronger every day. That part has no warmth, no joy. No face with which to express whatever is rotting away inside her. Inside me.

“Come back to bed, love.”

“I can’t.” She knows I can’t, but she always asks anyway. I hope she never stops asking. “You go on without me.”

“Piss off,” she scoffs, pushing off the wall. She pulls her chair up right next to me and sits, leaning forward, elbows digging into her knees. “Alright, Poppins. Out with it, then.”

I bite my lip. She still looks so much like she did. She still looks like my gardener. 

“It’s getting worse,” I say, and my voice is barely more than a whisper. “She’s here.”

“And so are you.” She reaches out and squeezes my thigh. “So am I.” Her hands are warm and rough, her grip firm. When she pulls away, five white fingertip-shaped marks linger on my skin. 

I chase her touch, grabbing her hand and bringing it back to my leg. She slides it up under my shorts, dipping her thumb into the crease where my thigh meets my pelvis. 

I remember what she said to me after a year. _I’m not sick of you_. I’ll never be sick of this. She lights me on fire. Every touch is the first one. I push her hand away and climb into her lap. She tilts her head back, knowing I’m going to kiss her, and I do. 

“It’s still you, Dani,” she says against my lips. “It’s still you and me.”

“And us.”

She slips her hand up my shirt and presses it against my sternum, right between my breasts. I can feel my heart beating against her palm. “You, me, us.”

My hands are in her hair, her tangled nest of curls. “And what happens when it’s not?”

“One day at a time, Poppins.”


End file.
